What happened next is regrettable: Panicked by fears of a global financial collapse, the Bush Treasury instead injected about half of the money into the banks.

Now comes the Obama administration's Public-Private Investment Program, which attempts to return to the original intent of TARP, in a slightly different way: Instead of the government buying assets, it will lend money to investors to buy them.

This program could clean up the books of the banks and make them more likely to lend.

One reason banks have held back is that their balance sheets are clogged with so-called legacy assets, another way of saying troubled loans. A bank's balance sheet is like the foyer closet - there's only so much room for stuff. If you want new stuff, you have to clean out the old.

The stock market likes the plan because the government, not the banks or the investors, takes on a lot of the risk. Uncle Sam's low-interest loans will mean investors can walk away, losing only their initial investments.

But before you complain that taxpayers are getting another raw deal, consider the alternative. In an interview with CNBC, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the alternative is, ultimately, for the government to buy these assets outright. He contends that would be a lot more costly.

Although it looks chaotic, much of the government's efforts so far have been to avoid owning the assets, as it did in the early '90s. Then, the government owned, managed and sold real estate throughout the country it had obtained from failed savings and loans.

That would be a deja vu we definitely don't want to repeat all over again.